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Open Serve: Do 1 of the following:
1) Buy a temporary card. (free in cvs in NJ won’t take cc)($3.95 fee), or
2) Open online. They’ll send you a card. (free)
Note that you COULD have more than one of these: Bluebird (BB), Redcard and serve. 

Loading Serve: Serve does not have any fees to load money.
a) At CVS, 7-11, and Rite Aid ONLY CASH can be loaded.
b) At Walmart GCs …uh Debit Cards (besides Vanilla cards) can be loaded onto Serve just like onto BB. Load limit: $2500/day up to $5000/month
c) At Family Dollar max $499.99/Day, not hard coded, YMMV, Cash or Debit/Gift Card.
WARNING: There are reports of debit cards being drained at FD, and not loading onto Serve, so FD is not recommended.
d) An Amex CC of the serve cardholder can be linked and used to fund your Serve ONLINE. Load limit: $200 per day/$1000 per month
Amex cc loads are not considered cash advance. They DO NOT earn points, or count towards a spending threshold.
e) Debit Cards linked to Serve: $200/day up to 1000/month ONLINE.  But only a permanent DC with your name on it. (NOT GCs)

So your total loading limit per month, if using all 3 methods is $7K.

-Serve has a $1 monthly inactivity fee (waived in VA, NY and TX) that is waived if you use Direct Deposit OR add $500.
-If Serve has a bonus for using direct deposit, use AP.

Using the funds on Serve:
-Free ATM use/withdrawal at MoneyPass ATMs. $2 elsewhere.
-Serve has a Bill Pay feature – same as BB.  You tell them who to pay, and they send a check for you.  You can pay up to 5k of unregistered billers, but 10K of registered ones (registered= those on their bill pay list). Pay your Credit Cards bills as well as many other bills or any person!
WARNING: Do not use the bill pay feature to pay the Credit Card that is linked for online loads.
-money in your Serve account can be withdrawn directly to a linked bank account, which, if done too much, may be seen as risky by Serve, but in moderation should be fine.
Withdraw to your bank https://secure.serve.com/Actions/WithdrawMoney

Make sure the name, address and phone number on your profile match your credit card billing address, or you may get declined.  When linking your credit card at serve.com, the website will only show you the address on your profile, but not the phone number, so this is easy to overlook.  Go to profile, and check/update your phone number there.

Error likely with the Serve account:
When you create a new account and add a credit card, you will be allowed to do the first transaction. After that, your account will probably go into system lockdown until you verify some information. Likely error message for this case is "Risk declined operation" when you try to add money on to the account. You will need to send in (online, fax or mail) a photo ID and a copy of your credit card or statement. Upload your documents here -
https://secure.serve.com/User/SecureFileUpload. Then Call up AMEX Account Protection Services at 1-800-555-4318 and tell them you uploaded the documents and ask them to verify it for you.
« Last edited by Iz on August 18, 2016, 10:36:02 AM »

Author Topic: Amexserve/Softcard  (Read 1398328 times)

Offline dirah

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #520 on: July 14, 2014, 07:10:50 PM »
For your typical DD reader who wont remember to fund it every month to avoid a fee you're not.
Many of them live in NY.

Offline Dan

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #521 on: July 14, 2014, 07:16:43 PM »
Many of them live in NY.
So they won't forget to load their Serve monthly to avoid the fee on that card?

My biggest fault is that I blog about what I'm familiar with and I don't write about things secondhand. I have BB, probably to my detriment, but I haven't invested the time to have it converted.
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline ari2955

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #522 on: July 14, 2014, 07:19:51 PM »
So they won't forget to load their Serve monthly to avoid the fee on that card?

No fee for NY, TX and VT.

Offline Dan

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #523 on: July 14, 2014, 07:26:33 PM »
No fee for NY, TX and VT.
Heh, I really haven't done enough research :D

Anyone know the reason for that?
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline ari2955

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #524 on: July 14, 2014, 07:34:40 PM »
Heh, I really haven't done enough research :D

Anyone know the reason for that?
Probably state laws..

There are some benefits of living outside CLE after all  :P

Offline dirah

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #525 on: July 14, 2014, 07:36:44 PM »
My biggest fault is that I blog about what I'm familiar with and I don't write about things secondhand.
Thanks Meshug.

Offline ChaimMoskowitz

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #526 on: July 14, 2014, 07:37:42 PM »
Thanks Meshug.
will that ever die?  :)
I just found a new supply of forks!

Offline Dan

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #527 on: July 14, 2014, 07:40:39 PM »
Thanks Meshug.
Lol, was a valuable lesson in trust.

Anyway, I've read horror stories about the BB>Serve transfer process.
Any recent reports here about the best way to go about it?
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline ChaimMoskowitz

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #528 on: July 14, 2014, 07:43:52 PM »
from FT:
Instructions to switch from BB to Serve
1. Login to BB account, bring account balance to Zero, (By Bill Pay, Send money, etc..)
2. Call BB, tell them that you want to open a serve account and close your current BB account. after they check everything they will say something like: "Your account will be permanently closed after 31 days, you can reopen it within 31 day if you change your mind, and you can apply for your new Serve account now, just make sure use the exact same register info from BB."
3. at this point BB is closed. next morning, goto CVS and get a temporary Serve card (only with cash), load $500, ($2.95 waived, Yeah!!)
4. get back home, register temporary Serve online, First error: "phone number already registered, please try a different number" could be the my BB's ghost account still showing up on their system, could be my info is not match my BB's registration? i'm not really sure at this point. What I did is keep the same number but change from Cell phone to home phone. and registration went through
5. after the register and login, second error: "We're still processing your application. Please check your email for an update"
6. I have see people on the thread reported waiting for weeks for the same message, So, I pickup the phone and called them, ask them to speed up the process.
7. CSR, told me that my account went to "account security protection department" transfer me to them.
8. at account security protection department, they told me need to call back on my phone number which I registered to verify.
9. after the call back of verification, CSR told me that my new Serve account is active now, email address verification will be send with in 5 minutes, permanent card will be received within 7-10 days.
10.CSR also told me the I can load and spend on the temporary card, but not bill pay.
I just found a new supply of forks!

Offline Dan

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #529 on: July 14, 2014, 07:52:05 PM »
Was looking for DDF reports of the PITA scale from 1-10.
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline ari2955

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #530 on: July 14, 2014, 08:06:37 PM »
Was looking for DDF reports of the PITA scale from 1-10.
3

Had some issues getting the BB balance to zero, from there on it was smooth.

Offline Sport

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #531 on: July 14, 2014, 08:07:28 PM »

3

Had some issues getting the BB balance to zero, from there on it was smooth.
How did you get it to zero. I've been at $0.01 for a while now.

Offline ari2955

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #532 on: July 14, 2014, 08:15:25 PM »
How did you get it to zero. I've been at $0.01 for a while now.
Na my issue was a pending $1 charge that wouldn't go away.

Why can't you load a few $ from you checking account and then make a payment..?

Offline rivkao

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #533 on: July 14, 2014, 09:07:35 PM »
You can load serve at dollar tree and cvs which BB you can't. That's a plus.

Offline Dan

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #534 on: July 14, 2014, 09:13:44 PM »
You can load serve at dollar tree and cvs which BB you can't. That's a plus.
Of course.
Though that won't last forever and it's not worth a major PITA if it dies in a month.
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline ari2955

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #535 on: July 14, 2014, 09:16:13 PM »
You can load serve at dollar tree and cvs which BB you can't. That's a plus.

With what? debit, credit?

Offline Dan

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #536 on: July 14, 2014, 09:23:37 PM »
Debit/GC
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline rivkao

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #537 on: July 14, 2014, 09:26:25 PM »
Sorry, it's family dollar not dollar tree. And 7-11 too.

Offline ari2955

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #538 on: July 14, 2014, 09:30:42 PM »
Debit/GC
Hmmm
In the VR days they were pretty tuff on your name being on the source card.

Offline rivkao

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Re: Amex Serve.com
« Reply #539 on: July 14, 2014, 09:36:04 PM »
Of course.
Though that won't last forever and it's not worth a major PITA if it dies in a month.
Why would you think it'll die soon. It was just born.